What property boom? WA prices stall
Jonathan Barrett
567 words
4 Sep 2014
The Australian Financial Review
AFNR
English
Copyright 2014. Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited.
In Perth's best suburbs, many ¬homeowners are going backwards.
Values of houses worth more than $1 million in Mosman Park, Dalkeith, Subiaco and Cottesloe are either flat or have fallen since 2008, new data shows.
The median house price for ¬$1 million-plus homes in Mosman Park was $1.55 million last financial year compared with $1.75 million five years ago, according to data compiled by REIWA.com.au for The Australian Financial Review. The data compared all house sales across Perth above $1 million since 2008.
"It's been pretty much a no-growth zone for the best part of six years," Real Estate Institute of West Australia ¬president David Airey said.
"A lot that haven't sold will come back on the market shortly pretending they are new listings."
Luxury homes in the riverside ¬suburb of Dalkeith dropped from a median of $2.4 million to $2.3 million over the period. House prices in ¬Subiaco didn't budge at $1.35 million. The median property selling for more than $1 million in Cottesloe increased modestly, from $1.84 million to $1.86 million.
The dour figures show hopes of a recovery in Perth's prestige property last year – in part linked to the sale of a Cottesloe home for $7.25 million, $2 million more than anticipated – have failed to materialise. Agents have since described the Cottesloe sale as a case of two extremely wealthy people bidding for a prized beach-side house and not the sign ¬competition had re-emerged.Below asking price
One of the country's biggest private developers, Perth-based Nigel Satterley, paid -$17.5 million for a Swan River mansion last year. He paid $7.5 million below the asking price.
Real estate agent Greg Rossen, of Rossen Real Estate, said there was a belief the top end of the market ¬bottomed out about 12 to 18 months ago.
"There was a bit of optimism and spate of sales, but in reality it was only a handful of sales and didn't represent a recovery," he said.
The weak demand in Perth's western suburbs has resulted in equally ¬unimpressive prices in luxury holiday hotspots, like beach-side streets in ¬Busselton and Dunsborough, in the state's south west.
Damien Schifferli, of valuers LMW Hegney, said prestige sales had ¬stagnated in the otherwise improving south west market because the market relied heavily on buyers from Perth's western suburbs.
"The luxury end is still 20 per cent below the peak," he said.
The data shows the number of homes selling for more than $1 million increased during the period, with 3139 luxury homes being sold in 2013-14, compared to 1508 in 2008-09.
Mr Airey said this was a result of ¬traditionally cheaper homes and ¬suburbs, where sales has been stronger, pushing prices into the $1 million to $2 million range.
"It's a case of the higher the price the lower the growth and the smaller number of sales," Mr Airey said.
Home values across ¬the eight capital cities rose by an annualised 15 per cent over the three months ended August 31, representing a 3.6 per cent ¬quarterly growth rate, according to RP Data.
Perth home values rose by an ¬annualised 8 per cent during that period, making it the second weakest capital city.
Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited
Document AFNR000020140903ea940002t
(04-09-2014, 01:05 PM)piggo Wrote: Not related to Australand... But this is one of Fraser's latest and final release in the Queen's Riverside project.
http://livelily.com.au
Homepage
PR Newswire
